Author: danfaulkner

Since the New Year is almost here, and resolutions are just around the corner, I thought I’d share with you my process for reviewing the previous year, and planning to make the new year your best one yet.

Review of the previous year – I always start with a very simple list, with two parts: what went well, and what didn’t go well. The what went well portion is the easy part; we all know what went well, and if we dig in a little bit, we can find a lot more things that went well than we originally thought. Where a lot of the growth comes in is leaning into what didn’t go so well. And yes, it’s okay to review what didn’t go well, what could have gone better. In many ways there is more value in this than in reviewing the victories, because there is more to learn in this. And lastly, I make a short list of what I can do better to address what didn’t go well, and what the lessons are from that.

Make a theme for the next year – it’s important to have an overarching theme for the year. What is the main vision you have for what a good life and a good year looks like? Anywhere from 1-10 words is good; you want it to be simple.

Set goals for next year – what do you want the year to look like, what is important that you become or accomplish? I like to break these down into the various aspects of life, which can be done in a whole variety of ways. My loose guidelines are spiritual, relational/family, personal, business/work, and financial. In my experience, 2-5 are ideal for each category.

Decide on the Big 3 for the year – focus is of the utmost importance, and if you get too scattered or spread too thin, your effectiveness will be greatly diminished. Out of everything you put down for the year, what are the three major goals for the year? The ones that will have the greatest impact on your life and your loved ones lives if you were to accomplish them? Be honest with yourself, choose the 3 that mean the most to you, not what you think someone else would want you to have as the primaries.

Make a 90-day plan – a 90-day plan is huge, because it takes your vision and breaks it down into execution. At the end of the day, what you can actually execute on is all that matters. Without execution a vision will just remain a pipe dream. 90 days is a great amount of time, because it gives a sense of urgency, and not a lot of room for error. You can afford to miss a week or two, that’s it. And it also breaks everything down into very practical, actionable items. For more info, check out the 12 Week Year (insert link)

Make a spreadsheet to track habits – I know, I know, I probably lost you at spreadsheet. But don’t worry, this is just a system to track habits. At the end of the day, as humans we are just really sophisticated habit machines, and our success or failure will be largely determined by our habits. It’s not what you do every once in a while that counts, it’s the small, seemingly insignificant things that you do daily. For me, these are things such as writing down 3 things I’m grateful for, getting to the gym 4+ times per week, eating healthy the majority of the time, etc. Decide what’s good for you, and track it!

Throw the whole thing out and do it your own way – seriously, I’ve found that things work out best if I take feedback and systems from others, and alter it to make it my own. Go my own way, carve my own path. So if this doesn’t work for you, or if some of it does, and some of it doesn’t, just do your own thing. Take what works and throw away the rest. It’s the best way to be!

So that’s it! Easy as pie, right? 🙂 While I’m far from perfect, this is the blueprint I’ve used over the past 5 years or so to make sure I get the most from reflecting on the previous year, and making sure I hit the new year running.

My hope is you have a great rest of your holiday season, and a wonderful start to 2018. We look forward to serving you and your referrals in 2018, and making it a beautiful year.

Which brings me to our goal for the new year – we plan on helping 70 families with their real estate goals in 2018. Do you know anyone who wants to get a head start on planning their next move or investment? This is a GREAT time to get started planning, so if anyone comes to mind who could use our help, could you let them know about us, and get us connected? More than helping 70 families next year, we want those people to be just like you. So as people come to mind, just let us know!

Thank you so much for making last month’s 5th annual Pie Party a smashing success! It was great to spend some time with so many of you. Good friends, good food, good pie equals good times for all. If you missed this year’s party, you missed out – and you should definitely make it a priority next year!

It is always our goal to make life a little better for you, our clients. Every November, the Tuesday before Thanksgiving we give out a pie to our clients who can make it to our party take one thing off your seemingly endless holiday to-do list. We also know how hard it can be to get everyone together for a holiday photo. But with the help of Licorice Photography, we try to help out with that as well. Check out your beautiful faces in the link below and have a happy and safe holiday season!

It’s that time of year again. Time for pie! Our 5th Annual Pie Party is quickly approaching. And we are going to go over the 5 W’s in regards to this fun and fabulous celebration!!

Who: Who is invited? You are! Come hang out for a while with your favorite Real Estate Agents and team. Or just pop by and get your free pie.

What: Okay, you know you’re invited. But what is the Pie Party and why won’t we stop talking about it? Well, it’s a chance to get a free pie. Need we really say more? But beyond that, it’s a great opportunity to get pictures taken by the fabulous Licorice Photography, grab a bite to eat and chill out for a few minutes before the chaos of the holiday season really sets in.

It’s October and fall is here! The perfect time to stay inside and curl up with a hot drink and a good book. With that in mind, we wanted you to know about something worth going outside for this month: corn mazes and pumpkin patches!

Starting south and heading north, here a just some of what the greater Seattle area has to offer.

It’s a dairy farm – but in the fall they run a 5 acre corn maze and a u-pick pumpkin patch. It also hosts a Kids Corral with variety of activities for the little ones, including a chance to milk a cow!

This place hosts a unique corn maze each year, a u-pick pumpkin patch and a farm fun yard. The farm fun yard hosts activities for kids such as a hay maze, rubber duck derby, and the all time favorite corn pen. Where there are countless corn kernels to play in!

Here you get hayride/tractor pull over to Bob’s big corn maze & u-pick pumpkin patch. They also have a country store full of tasty treats and pre-picked pumpkins. They also host a number of kid-friendly spaces and a hay bale maze.

Their corn maze has 4.5 miles of path and is a giant map of Washington with more than 250 state roads and 400 towns and landmarks, each labeled with historical facts. Top off this experience with pumpkin and apple picking!

Located just north of Snohomish this place offers more than just corn & pumpkin picking. They have Zombie Paintball. And on weekends only they have pumpkin cannons! That has to be awesome.

This list only scratches the surface, there’s plenty more out there. And if those aren’t your thing there are still loads of great things happening this month in the Seattle region. Things worth getting out for, even getting wet and maybe even muddy for! And after that, then you can go home, curl up with a hot drink and read that book.

And don’t miss our handy house-hunting checklist below. If you know anyone who could benefit from this information, just let us know and we’d be happy to follow up with them!

10 years is a long time. A lot can happen, a lot can be accomplished. More than we think, or give ourselves credit for.

This being the 10th year of our annual Gratitude Gathering, we thought about how we could make it extra special. We gave our guests the usual treat bag filled with nostalgic snacks, as well as a branded mini bat, and we were even fortunate enough to have our game fall on the Karaoke Firework night! As our extra special thank you to our clients this year we gave out The 10 Book to inspire our clients to dream a little bit. Dream big dreams, think of new adventures, do that thing that they’re a little afraid to do. Because in 10 years, you never know what amazing things can happen. We certainly couldn’t have envisioned all of this. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for for your role in getting us to where we are today.

It’s been an exciting first half of the year here at The Dan Faulkner Group. One of the most notable changes is our new Executive Assistant, Tisha Giulini!

Tisha moved 21 times and lived in 11 states before settling in the Seattle area in 2012. After renting in the area for several years, Kelsey and Dan helped them purchase a home. Tisha was a stay at home mom for sixteen years, then decided to look for a job since her two children were in middle school and high school. Dan posted a Facebook message when he needed some temporary help and she started working part time in his office in January of 2017. By February, all parties agreed that she needed to be a permanent fixture on the team! It has been a great opportunity to get back in the workforce and still have the flexibility to take care of her family and volunteer duties.

She enjoys reading, riding bikes, hiking, gardening, cooking, entertaining, and doing crafts. Her family has gone camping for the last decade in CA, TX, and WA in tents and a pop-up camper. Since it usually rains and/or hails during their trips in WA, they’re glad to now travel with a camping trailer. This summer will be her and her husband, Chris’ 20th anniversary and they’re planning a trip down the OR coast in the camper while the kids are at a teen summer camp.

Volunteering in her community is also important to Tisha and she enjoys working with several church and school organizations. Much of her volunteering time is spent as the Liberty High PTSA treasurer, and she looks forward to next year in the role as well.

After living in many different states around the country, Tisha and her family look forward to learning more about the Pacific Northwest and exploring campgrounds in the area with their rescue dog Tommy, an adorable mutt.

Tisha has been a huge asset to our team, mainly assisting Andrea with administrative tasks. She helps keep us organized, pays attention to all the little details and adds a great touch of creativity and fun!

You don’t have to be an expert to know that our housing market is hot right now. In fact, Seattle and Tacoma are currently trending as some of the most competitive markets in the country. In this month’s email we wanted to show you exactly what those numbers are.

Overall, March was a seller’s market. Here’s what that means:

Buyer’s market: more than 6 months of inventory based on closed sales

Seller’s market: less than 3 months of inventory based on closed sales

Neutral market: 3 – 6 months of inventory based on closed sales

Overall, the current King County months of inventory based on closed sales is .8 months of inventory..8 months of inventory is an historic low, and means that if no new homes were to be listed, it would take only 3 weeks to sell out of everything that is on the market. We would run out fast!

Below are the market specific numbers. If you want numbers specific to your city, let me know and I’d be happy to get those for you.

EASTSIDE

Homes For Sale in March 2017: 662 units.

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Up 24.4% compared to the last month

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Down 21.1% compared to the last year

Homes Closed in March 2017: 568 units.

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Up 33.3% compared to the last month

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Down 9.4% compared to the last year

Homes Placed under Contract in March 2017: 784 units.

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Up 44.9% compared to the last month

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Down 1.9% compared to the last year

SOUTH

Homes For Sale in March 2017: 638 units.

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Up 6.3% compared to the last month

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Down 23% compared to the last year

Homes Closed in March 2017: 760 units.

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Up 28.8% compared to the last month

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Up 1.1% compared to the last year

Homes Placed under Contract in March 2017: 922 units.

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Up 37% compared to the last month

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Up 4.7% compared to the last year

METRO

Homes For Sale in March 2017: 461 units.

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Up 10.6% compared to the last month

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Down 17.1% compared to the last year

Homes Closed in March 2017: 763 units.

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Up 64.1% compared to the last month

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Up 11.4% compared to the last year

Homes Placed under Contract in March 2017: 836 units.

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Up 39.3% compared to the last month

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Down 0.4% compared to the last year

KING/SNOHOMISH

Homes For Sale in March 2017: 2467 units.

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Up 9.9% compared to the last month

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Down 22.6% compared to the last year

Homes Closed in March 2017: 2971 units.

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Up 36.2% compared to the last month

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Down 1.2% compared to the last year

Homes Placed under Contract in March 2017: 3697 units.

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Up 38.8% compared to the last month

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Up 0.4% compared to the last year

If you’re thinking of taking advantage of this seller’s market, reach out and we’d be happy to let you know what your home might be worth. If you’re hoping to buy in this market but not sure if it’s possible or worth it, please reach out and we’d be happy to discuss your situation to come up with the best course of action for you!